World in motion

World in motion

Sabrina Guerrieri brings us news of the theme for this year’s ASQ Forums and a prestigious award for ACI World director general, Angela Gittens.

ACI World’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme, the only worldwide programme to survey passengers at the airport on their day of travel, continues to expand and go from strength to strength.

A record 318 airports from 84 countries took part in the 2016 programme – a process that involved carrying over 600,000 individual surveys in 41 languages – and even more gateways are expected to participate in 2017 as ACI’s customer satisfaction benchmarking survey moves into its eleventh year.

Winning an award, however, is only part of the ASQ programme, which is designed to help airports improve their customer service offering to passengers by being able to benchmark their own performance and learn about best practice from others.

And one of the ways it does this is by holding three ASQ Forums yearly. ACI recently revealed that the theme for 2017 events will be ‘Cultivating a customer experience airport community’.

This theme recognises that putting the passenger first is a shared priority among all aviation stakeholders and the role of all members of the airport community in cultivating a culture of customer service excellence.

The first ASQ Forum will take place from April 26–28 in Haikou, China; the second in Prague, the Czech Republic, from September 13-15; and the third in Detroit, Michigan, USA, from October 2-4.

“The venues for this year’s ASQ Forums are diverse, and we expect attendees at each event to take away unique, regionally informed insights into how they can develop a culture of customer experience at their airport,” says Antoine Rostworowski, ACI World’s director of airport customer experience and technology.

“In keeping with past ASQ Forums, participants can expect an engaging mix of presentations, discussion sessions, networking opportunities, and new ASQ programme tools and insights to ensure no stone is left unturned as we explore this year’s theme.”

The winners of the 2016 awards can be viewed on page 8 of this issue and online at www.aci.aero/Airport-Service-Quality/ASQ-Awards.

Talking about the incredible customer service efforts of all the 2016 ASQ winners and reflecting on the fact that some gateways have finished at the top of their respective categories for a number of years, ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, says: “These airports have dedicated themselves to delivering a stellar customer experience.

“Promoting a culture of continuous service improvement has become a matter of gaining a competitive advantage and optimising non-aeronautical revenue performance.

“The common denominator among all of these airports is their focus on cultivating a robust culture of customer service – delivered not only from frontline staff, but from their entire airport community.”

The ASQ Awards Ceremony for the 2016 winners will be held at the 27th ACI Africa/World Annual General Assembly, Conference & Exhibition in Port Louis, Mauritius, October 16-18, 2017.

For more information on ACI’s ASQ programme, visit: www.aci.aero/Airport-Service-Quality/ASQ-Home.

We salute you

ACI World’s director general, Angela Gittens, has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 National Aeronautic Association’s (NAA) Cliff Henderson Trophy.

Permanently displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Wasington DC, the Henderson Trophy was established in 1960 to honour Clifford Henderson, the creator and managing director of the world-renowned National Air Races.

Henderson’s work stimulated a generation’s interest in aviation and challenged the state of the art in aviation development.

The trophy is awarded to “…a living individual, group of individuals, or an organisation whose vision, leadership or skill made a significant and lasting contribution to the promotion and advancement of aviation and aerospace in the United States.”